The Thread Thread: Questions about alternate outfits, etc.

[Sgt_Frog]

So, this is my second thread, after the short-lived World Of Warcraft one a while back. I had a few questions about clothing and shoes. Like alternate outfits, casual clothing, and whether or not the characters wear "uwabaki" or those white cloth-and-rubber shoes Japanese students wear while inside the school. I was hoping for some good discussion, maybe a bit of fanart, and...um...yeah, you can definitely tell I'm not very good at /starting/ threads.

[neumanproductions]

Well, I know Rin gets to have painter's overalls. Other than that my only guess is that we will get to see more casual wear the further the story goes. Such as when winter comes around again, if they decided to entend the story that long. I personally think they will.
As for shoes Emi is allowed to use her normal running prosthetics when she bumps into Hisao (although she was in her gym clothes durign the time). The opening classroom CG seems to show several types of shoes or at least different shades. That's the current extent of my knowledge.

[Csihar]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If the writers don't find some excuse to get the girls in swimsuits (maybe excluding Hanako) at some point in the story, I will be very, very disappoint.

[Goldilurks]

(maybe excluding Hanako)

[Darroth]

I remember once reading something about a Hot Springs visit and that means Yukata.

[PureLionHeart]

This game just flat-out begs for a Halloween segment, frankly. The possibilities are endless.
If only...

[Xybaro]

This game just flat-out begs for a Halloween segment, frankly. The possibilities are endless.
If only...

I don't think Halloween is a very big thing in Japan.

Atleast, I've hardly ever seen anything of it in anime and visual novels.

[Silentcook]

You won't get school uniforms 24/7.

Regarding casuals, the Shimmie can help you.

[SirMax]

I think my nerd is showing, but I'd love to see Lilly in a kimono. Not because "omg so Japan!" or anything, I just like kimonos. Still, like cpl_crud mentioned in that manifest panel, it's a little unrealistic to ask artists to make a new outfit which needs a new sprite set for one scene, so any outfits that do show up will probably be used a decent amount.

[Bara]

I think my nerd is showing, but I'd love to see Lilly in a kimono. Not because "omg so Japan!" or anything, I just like kimonos. Still, like cpl_crud mentioned in that manifest panel, it's a little unrealistic to ask artists to make a new outfit which needs a new sprite set for one scene, so any outfits that do show up will probably be used a decent amount.

Yeah, just from the workload on the artists aspects I'd expect the girls to only have their one set of sprites for the story and any various "looks" would be done as one off CG's.

[Csihar]

This game just flat-out begs for a Halloween segment, frankly. The possibilities are endless.
If only...

I don't think Halloween is a very big thing in Japan.

Atleast, I've hardly ever seen anything of it in anime and visual novels.

With cosplay, every day can be Halloween in Japan.

[kapparomeo]

"Three outfits for each girl" was mentioned on the convention transcript - while we can't be sure whether that's actually a specific value or just a random number that Suriko threw out there for the sake of illustrating the workload for the audience, you could easily see it translating to a basic and universal trio of School Uniform/Mufti/Work Clothes.

So, for instance, Emi has her uniform, her gym kit (her "work" attire), and some mufti for out-of-school activities that we haven't seen yet. Similarly, Rin has her uniform for school, her painting overalls for work, and then mufti for casual occasions (again not seen yet).

Then, of course, there's the fourth costume: the birthday suit...

Admittedly I'm no artist, but it shouldn't be too difficult to recreate different outfits, surely? Unless a character is going to be doing lots of specific movements, you could create a single template costume and then cut'n'paste all necessary expressions onto a blank face? You still have to draw one body, but at least you're not starting from scratch each time.

[neumanproductions]

Admittedly I'm no artist, but it shouldn't be too difficult to recreate different outfits, surely? Unless a character is going to be doing lots of specific movements, you could create a single template costume and then cut'n'paste all necessary expressions onto a blank face? You still have to draw one body, but at least you're not starting from scratch each time.

Again, I like using examples i'm really familiar with. In Shuffle!, after you've played throught the game, you have the option of viewing a 'the expression viewer mode'. This always you to see all the sprites of the VN. What i'm aware of is each main character has only two poses and their dress is layered over a completely drawn, naked sprite. Same with the expressions, which are layered over a blank face. This way you're able to have a foundation that can get layered over with any combination of dress and expression when completed. I'm not sure how the devs have it placed but it appears to me that this is the way they are currently running their sprites. So all they should need to do is layer the new clothes over the base form. This way they don't have to be redrawing whole sprites making it easier, simply by using the poses they currently have.
Anyone can notice this by looking at how the eyes are positioned; either over the hair or not.

[Silentcook]

I'm not sure how the devs have it placed but it appears to me that this is the way they are currently running their sprites. So all they should need to do is layer the new clothes over the base form. This way they don't have to be redrawing whole sprites making it easier, simply by using the poses they currently have. Anyone can notice this by looking at how the eyes are positioned; either over the hair or not.

No; the game sprites are not layered, each one is complete in its own right.

There actually was some discussion concerning this way back when and I won't claim to understand the technicalities, but apparently it's easier this way. The masters are of course layered to allow additions and modifications, but that's different.

Also I think that skilled use of transparencies would destroy that "eyes over the hair" stuff, but again I'm the guy who works with text, not images.

[scineram]

Yes, swimsuits. There must be some swimsuits! And since we are talking about transparency...